Busselton mother makes the Australian 24-hour ultra running team

A Busselton mother of two has qualified for the Australian ultra running team. 42-year-old Sharene Blake got into ultra running about five years ago when a friend at her running club mentioned the sport. “I’ve heard he was doing and had done some ultra runs, so I just asked him how you train for something like that and what events can you go in, because I’ve never really heard of it,” Ms Blake said. “It just exposed me to a lot of styles of ultra running events that they have.” Ms Blake said she was never a long distance or marathon runner however, now her races encouraged her to run for 24 hours straight. “I used to be known amongst my friends as the 5k runner, I never used to do more than that,” she said. Blake qualified for the Australian squad at the Australian Institute of Sport track and field facility in Canberra, which is considered one of the best athletic tracks in the country. She posted a qualifying distance and a new personal best result of 218.228km at the Australian 24 Hour Track Invitational held in Canberra at the beginning of July. “When I had passed 210km, I was fairly sure I had made the team, so I asked the organiser, does that mean I made it, and he said yes, but keep going,” Ms Blake said. “I was so excited I was in tears. “I’m 42, my dreams were the green and gold, I didn’t think at 42 I’d make it, I thought I’ve missed my opportunity.” Ms Blake’s 24-hour campaign at the qualifier ended with 545 laps of the 400m track totalling the 218km result. Ms Blake held the lead for a little over 170 laps of the race however, the experience of the first ranked Australian runner and ACT athlete Allicia Heron prevailed with her own PB of 225.428km. This result positioned Blake third in the overall female rankings in Australia. The national team of six men and six women will travel to Taiwan for the World Championships in December.